'Reform leaders organized 'lynch' against Hotovely'

NY rabbi says Deputy Foreign Minister is correct in saying US Jews don't serve in army as Israelis do.

Eliran Aharon:NY, 05/12/17 22:52

Rabbi Yoel Shonfeld

Eliran Aharon

Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, the Rosh Kehilla (Community Rabbi) of the Young Israel of Queens, accused the American Reform and Conservative Movements of launching a 'lynch' against Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely.

"What happened with [Deputy] Minister Hotovely is disgraceful," Rabbi Schonfeld said in an interview with Arutz Sheva. "She made a statement which I believe is correct."

"She wasn't picking on Jews. What she was saying is that the American people do not send their kids off to war...like the Israelis do. There isn't a mishpacha (family) in Israel that doesn't send their child off to the war, or to active battle, or to possible battle. And the American people don't understand that,

"This was a lynch against Hotovely all organized by the Reform and Conservative [leaders] all purely for political consumption," he said.

At the end of a 15 minute interview that took place last month dealing with current issues in Israel, Hotovely stated in answer to a question about waning US Jewish support for Israel that American Jews are “people who do not have to send their children to fight for their country” and that “most of them are living comfortable lives.”

Stephen M. Flatow, a vice president of the Religious Zionists of America and father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in Israel in 1995, wrote in an op-ed that he was disappointed by the silence of major Orthodox Jewish organizations, except for the Coalition of Jewish Values. He quoted a number of well-known columnists who published articles supporting the deputy minister.